Sorry Tony - all cameras are FAR from equal.
Just bought a Nikon Z9 for it's stellar frame rate and focus engine...
Wouldn't have spent $5.5k if my cell would have done the job.
This is an upgrade from my D500 and D810....great cameras in their own right.
Cell phones HAVE come a long way.
But they still have 4-5 plastic elements for lenses that are mostly hyperfocal.
The have TINY pixels with a pitch about 2X the wavelength they are trying to capture -> no dynamic range.
They have no way to set a shutter speed - and are NOT going to give you 1/2000th of a second or faster you NEED for rockets.
They are great for selfies and are often the best camera you are carrying, but the pro's don't shoot with cell phones at sporting events. No fallacy here....just decades of shooting sports and I can assure you a cell phone is worthless except for maybe curling.
Buying and schlepping pro bodies attached to big glass is not done for show.....you get results.
Still you need to practice and know you gear to extract the best results.
Old saying:
Buy a camera and you're a photographer.
Buy a piano and you're not a pianist.
Cameras are VERY complicated tools and not everyone can drive one.
My wife owns 3 DSLR's and one mirrorless (a very good bird photographer) and says my Z9 is way too much camera for her.
I've shot a few MILLION frames and am still learning and honing my technique.
There have already been two posts about how equipment does not a photographer make, yet you want to argue the point.
I sold cameras for 5 years, including to the top professional photographers in the Mpls-St. Paul area. As a result we had a lot of folks who bought cameras from us just so they could say they did. I can absolutely state that "Buying and schlepping pro bodies attached to big glass is not done for show.....you get results" is
absolutely false in many instances - folks do it because they can and they have the mistaken notion that buying the gear makes them a photographer. But if it makes you feel better about your purchases and the money you've spent, I understand.
You are completely wrong about cell phone cameras - you clearly have no idea about the pro level of photo apps that exist that allow full control including shooting in RAW. The fact that you don't even know that you can manually set the shutter speed on a cell phone speaks volumes about your ignorance of the subject. You should quit while you are behind. To give you an example of what you've missed, I've attached a couple of screenshots below.
I have a curio cabinet full of my old film gear, starting with a Rolliflex TLR and a Nikon F, and ending with a Hassleblad and a Nikon F5. But I would
never make the claim that owning that gear made me a photographer. That's something else entirely. In my 40+ years of working with professional photographers, the old adage I heard was "
people buy a camera and think they're a photographer". Photography is an artistic endeavor, not a technical one. Your piano analogy could have been spot-on, except you fail to realize that photography is exactly like playing the piano.
You should look up 'gatekeeping' in the Urban Dictionary. Your post is a perfect example.
Tony
Example of a camera app with advanced features: (Camera+ 2 on iOS)
1: Camera RAW format
2: Choose between physical camera lenses
3: Manual settings, including ISO, shutter speed, and white balance
4. Shutter speed of 1/4000 selected, you can see higher speeds possible
Not shown: slow shutter of up to 30 seconds, excellent editing capabilities
Additional features:
Focus Peaking and Clipping for manual focus and exposure adjustment
